Cooper Rush, once a familiar face in Dallas Cowboys blue, is now haunting his former team from afar, wearing the purple and black of the Baltimore Ravens in a different conference. The undrafted free agent who carved out an eight-year tenure with the Cowboys is inadvertently sticking it to his old squad, and it’s not even entirely his fault. However, his lackluster performance as a Raven could cost Dallas more than just nostalgia—it might jeopardize a valuable fifth-round compensatory draft pick.
Rush’s journey took a sharp turn this season when he was called upon to fill in for the injured Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. Tasked with spot starts, Rush struggled mightily, posting a dismal 29.5 QBR and throwing four interceptions in two games. His performance against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 6 was particularly telling, as he failed to solidify his role as the Ravens’ QB2. Instead, he was demoted to QB3, with Tyler Huntley—a journeyman quarterback who bounced between the Ravens and the Cleveland Browns this offseason—taking over as the primary backup.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s comments after the Rams game shed light on Rush’s shaky standing. “My plan was to play both [quarterbacks] throughout the course of the game,” Harbaugh said during his October 12 postgame press conference. “As we went through the game, as you feel the game, when you make a change, it wasn’t going to be necessarily a change. It was going to be Cooper then Tyler; it could have been Tyler, then Cooper again. It could have been any one of those things.”
Harbaugh’s indecision reflected Rush’s inability to seize the moment. “The way the first half went, it didn’t seem to be a moment to bring him out,” Harbaugh continued. “In the second half, we had a drive going, and then we turned it over. So, I think you could say that, maybe, but I don’t necessarily think there was an obvious moment to do that.” Translation: Rush didn’t give the Ravens a compelling reason to keep him in the game—or on the roster.
Falling behind Huntley on the depth chart is a bad look for any quarterback, but it’s especially damning for Rush. Huntley, who briefly replaced Shedeur Sanders in a Browns preseason game, was always a known quantity, a temporary fill-in who wasn’t expected to outshine anyone. Rush, on the other hand, was supposed to prove he could still hang in the NFL. Instead, his poor showings have led to speculation that his start against the Rams might have been his last in the league.
For the Cowboys, this is where the nightmare deepens. Dallas is banking on Rush playing enough snaps to secure a fifth-round compensatory pick in the upcoming draft. If the Ravens cut him loose—and with his current performance, that seems increasingly likely—the Cowboys will be left holding the bag. Not only will they lose the draft pick, but they’ll also feel the sting of Rush’s departure all over again. His eight-year stint in Dallas, which included a brief detour to another team before a return, ended quietly last season. Now, his NFL career might conclude with one final, unintentional jab at the franchise that gave him his start as an undrafted free agent in 2017.
Rush’s struggles in Baltimore are a far cry from his time as a serviceable backup for Dak Prescott in Dallas. While he was never a star, he showed enough grit to stick around for nearly a decade. But his recent performances suggest his time in the NFL may be running out, and the ripple effects could hit the Cowboys’ draft plans hard. From a thousand miles away, Cooper Rush is quietly torpedoing Dallas’ season—one interception at a time.